August 8, 2012 The Age Once a scrappy auction site for mum and dad sellers, eBay is enticing some of the world’s largest retailers by arguing it can help them compete better against e-commerce leader Amazon.com. eBay Chief Executive John Donahoe and other executives have been telling retailers that Amazon is their enemy, while eBay is a friend because, unlike Amazon, it holds no inventory. Amazon buys products wholesale, stores them in inventory and sells them to consumers at higher prices – like all retailers. eBay says it just matches buyers and sellers. That message is sinking in, especially among brick and mortar retailers that are losing market share to Amazon. “As retailers look for new vehicles for growth eBay becomes a natural partner – a better partner than Amazon,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, an e-commerce analyst at Forrester Research. When RadioShack Corp reported a surprise quarterly loss last month, Chief…

This is one of the regular insightful articles in ‘The Age by Michael Baker. We are very pleased that Michael will be one of the excellent speakers at our ‘Convenience Leaders Summit’ on the 29/30 November. More details to come. Michael Baker August 7, 2012 The Age A new report by retail analysts Thomas Kierath and Crystal Wang at Morgan Stanley carries a title that many small shopkeepers will find a little dark: ‘Big retail getting bigger’. The analysts used data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Retail Trade survey to draw two important conclusions: first, and not surprisingly, that small retailers have lost a significant amount of market share over the past four years. The second conclusion is slightly more jarring: that the market share small retailers have lost is not likely to be coming back. This latter conclusion is based on an analysis of retail trade cycles during…

NACSOnline Aug 7, 2012 CEDAR RAPIDS, IA – The Gazette provided a detailed feature on the convenience store industry’s burgeoning foodservice programs. Citing NACS figures that show foodservice sales comprised 16.9% of $195 billion of in-store sales at convenience stores in 2011, the Gazette said, “[D]on’t think of them as gas stations. Instead, think of them as the place for pizza, doughnuts and maybe even some banana bread.” “Food is the future of our industry,” said Jeff Lenard, NACS vice president of industry advocacy. “Our stores will become food stores that happen to sell gas rather than gas stations that happen to sell food, as they are perceived today. It will be a slow evolution, but it is happening for two important reasons. “From the retail perspective, the product is there, the distribution is there, the competency is there, the revenue is there and, from the consumer side, the demand…

CSD Staff Aug 07, 2012 C-stores launch Amazon Locker program in their stores to give consumers a more secure delivery program. Convenience stores are adding Amazon.com web lockers in the San Francisco area. Amazon.com has been expanding its Locker system after testing services in c-stores in the Seattle, NYC, London and the Virginia-area. The addition of the Northern California locker locations brings the total to at least 50 locker sites in the U.S., according to the company’s Website. The lockers allow customers to have their online purchases delivered and stored at convenience stores until they pick them up. The locker banks have been placed at c-stores and drug stores so that consumers can pick up packages at a time that’s convenient for them. “When customers ship Amazon orders to an Amazon Locker, they can pick up their packages at a time and place that’s convenient for them,” said Mary Osako,…

CSD Staff Aug 07, 2012 CSDecisions E-cigs “are growing in popularity . . . no question about that,” says Chad Maynard, spokesman for ElectronicCigarette.net on the category. Electronic cigarettes might not be marketed as smoking cessation aids, but recent studies posted in the American Journal of Public Health suggest that many smokers are turning the the product for that reason. Smokers are far more aware of e-cigarettes, and are more likely to try them. The devices are not necessarily attracting young people or non-smokes, as some public health experts have feared. “People have their own reasons for trying vapors,” said Chad Maynard, spokesman for ElectronicCigarette.net. “But no one is marketing them for that purpose and we couldn’t say whether or not they would be effective. Our Website is there to help people who decide to try vaping, learn more about it and make an informed choice about which brand to…